Bev & Mike comment on a furniture, fabrics and accessories of interest to interior designers and their clients in Portland, Oregon.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

The tabletop as art display space: Ceramic mosaic tops by Furthur

The LA Times today reports that for some time "...tables with ceramic-tiled tops have often been relegated to patio and pool areas — strictly outdoors.

But that's changing, says Michelle Arias, who, with her husband, Raymond, opened Furthur on Sunset Boulevard 20 years ago. Tables adorned with 4-by-4-inch Mexican azulejos (ceramic wall tiles) are now in-home worthy because the quality of the tiles that she gets in Dolores Hidalgo, about a 40-minute drive north from San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico, has so vastly improved.

Azulejos can be traced to Moorish influences in the Iberian peninsula. Both there and in Mexico they became an obvious status statement — ornamental wall art that also functioned as a temperature moderator. Azulejos turned up on walls, floors, ceilings and were featured in churches and royal mansions